The Sparkcog Cartel (Events)
Note: This timeline has information related only to major IC guild events hosted by the Sparkcog Cartel. Ideally, your character will have either been associated with at least one of these events or will be familiar with most of them. July 2012 'Blackgrin Coup d'etat (July 30-31') When the Sparkcog Cartel's general Vixx Steelwrench decided to singlehandedly scout the sewage and scum of Shipwreck's slums, he found the distasteful presence of the Slagsteel Cahoots, a notorious gang which fell from grace years ago. His presence undoubtedly attracts a myriad of attention from all sides of the goblin underworld, and when the general returns to delve headlong with only a single soldier to confront and squish the Slagsteels into history, he is brought to the mercy of the Blackgrin Syndicate; a much wealthier, prosperous organization of the underworld who exchanged alleged bargains with the Slagsteel Cahoots in exchange for the general. With an explosive bang, the Blackgrin captured General Steelwrench and disappeared with their mark: they annihilated much of the Slagsteel's forces, provoking the lesser-known, although more technologically advanced, Ironpipe Bruisers to push the front and advance against the Cahoots, easily claiming over half of the Slagsteel territory. Word was fortunate enough to swiftly reach the higher-ranking military and cartel officials, and after a brief meeting it was decided that a baron would go undercover to the city's highest-class casino, where the syndicate was often known for operating within in its younger days. Audibly and actively boasting to each socialiate and executive within the casino proved to quickly initiate an attack from the syndicate: seconds later, smoke bombs poured into the interior of the casino and a battle between the B.O.I. (Bureau of Investigation) and Blackgrin mobsters was quick to begin and end, with the interrogation of a Blackgrin survivor who was quickly finished off for his "lack of knowledge". Moments later, a tremendous roar erupted throughout Shipwreck which shook the city's very foundation. The Sparkscraper, a symbolic landmark representative of Sparkcog industry, trade and business, had sustained a significant explosion - the numerous, gaping punctures made in the structure reminiscent of the organization's notorious, toothy grin. Soon would Baron Ryypo and Mogul Glucket Gizmospin uncover on their posthaste trip back to the cartel's military base of operations that an invasion had begun: they were stopped by several bruisers claiming that a new trade prince had taken control of the city and ordered to surrender immediately. Already battles were surging out across the city as Blackgrin's mobsters utilized their heavy artillery to storm from Shipwreck's slums, quickly overwhelming and claiming the factory district and it's military development and the alchemy district's versatile and scattered experiments. The suburbs were thrown into a state of warfare, torn between rising militia and syndicate mobsters. Trade Prince Zimirvox's B.O.I. agency acted swiftly and decisively, securing the business & port district with military aid while a squadron was sent out to rescue important political figureheads in danger of extermination due to their affiliation or sympathy for Zimirvox's rule. (Noteably among these rescues was the town hall, where Ms. "Production", the factory district's manager, had taken refuge after evacuating her workers, as well as several other wealthy civilians and politicians, most to all of these candidate targets for annihilation.) When as many civilians were evacuated as possible, a squadron was assimilated and the offensive began: Captain Kidrik's men pushed through the casino district, which remained relatively unaffected by the fighting, through the villas, past an offensive and into the Blackgrin heart of Shipwreck: the highway leading to the alchemy district and beyond was snaked with the mobsters. The squadron's perserverance eventually led them to the front of the factory, where a military mechano-tank in development, pirateered by the Syndicate, emerged to exterminate the group. It's heavy flamethrower and rocket launchers proved deadly and nearly cost the lives of many within the group. (At the expense of a grenade and some stealthy snooping, two soldiers were able to cause the mechano-tank to explode.) The task force pushed forward through the factory, shutting down Blackgrin operations within it using a failsafe code distributed to the group during Ms. "Production"'s rescue. The syndicate made their ultimatum after the factory shut down, swarming the liberation task force and eagerly preparing to massacre them when a mighty war zeppelin, commandeered by Sky-Captain Bomblast, expertly, albeit still clumsily, planted itself directly on the Blackgrin forces, crushing the majority of the remaining incursion. After a momentary rendezvous with General Vixx Steelwrench, who had freed himself with Bomblast's aid, the final push was made against the syndicate: their forces were easily weeded out of the suburbs with the military's renewed vigor, and the city was secured once again, the remaining Blackgrin fleeing into Sparkcog Isle's vast jungles. August 2012 'The Kaja'mite Rush (August 3-5)' With the last of the known deposites of kaja'mite on Azeroth disappearing, it's no surprise that rumors of new and untapped sources would garner massive media and attention. Word of these sources was first to reach Shipwreck City, and hundreds of goblins eagerly began preparing themselves for the kaja'mite equivalent of a gold rush. Twenty different public transportation submarines, each with a maximum capacity of two hundred passengers, quickly took advantage of the opportunity, selling rental gear as well as tickets and mining supplies. Not only a day after the rumors of kaja'mite being discovered was confirmed by The Shipwreck Tribune did every public transportation ticket sell out and their captains begin departing for the voyage. The passengers aboard public transportation submarine #17 were subject to the varities of sea life: from the spanning ranges of seaweed and forest kelp to schools of colorful, shimmering fish and the vast underwater landscapes which stretch until they disappear into the distance to merciless ones (unbeknownst to them), endless trenches, and a kraken of unimaginable size. While the sea's merciless ones temporarily took over the submarine's higher levels and threatened the expedition with sabotage, the kraken was only ever encountered from a distance and seemed to steer clear of the submarine and its passengers. Hours after braving the Maelstrom's rocky waters, Captain Grizzlo spoke through the intercom that the submarine had arrived at its destination in Vashj'ir: a rocky little cave likely formed from water drippings over millions of years. The eroded shoreline inside became the temporary base for a crowded goblin camp, which housed a makeshift variety of merchantile businesses, General Steelwrench's marines, and a cheap inn where most expeditionaries made their home. Battered and tired from the earlier events, the passengers of submarine #17 quickly found themselves a bed and slept the night away, only to be awoken several hours later by the deafening shouts of General Steelwrench amassing a crew to venture into a gigantic, spiral-shelled creature spotted nearby the base. Inside of the creature, Steelwrench's forces stumbled upon a tremendous sight: pearls in every corner of the monstrous being of which some are the size of entire buildings. Several other crews of goblin commoners had already arrived on the scene and were actively mining the pearls, although much of the resources remained untapped. As soon as the newly arrived team had time to do anything other than approach the pearls, equip a pickaxe and begin mining, however, did a wave of naga storm the operation and take the goblins by surprise, later capturing them and using them in their slave mines. Two goblins who were neither experienced in nor prepared to fight took refuge in one of the creature's cavities, watching from afar as their comrades were captured. It became apparent that someone would have to rescue them, and with much quick and clever thinking, (and a burning naga or two), the duo arrived at their companions, freeing them and making a swift escape from the creature, leaving General Steelwrench, who served to pose as a distraction for their escape, behind. Leaving the shell creature empty-handed and with no kaja'mite disappointed the expedition of submarine #17, so the next day, along with most of the other freelance miners looking to strike it big, the expeditionaries headed for Base Alpha, where there was kaja'mite aplenty and General Vixx Steelwrench and his men guarding the entrance to an ancient looking factory door, presumably of Titan origin at the time. When the General had satisfied himself outside with a few colleagues, they ventured into the ruins, finally opening its doors some minutes later for the curious commoners to explore and loot whatever valuables that the military would leave behind. However, turning his back for even a moment allowed an even more curious division of submarine #17 to venture into the actual depths of the ruins, immersing themselves within and stumbling across strange robots of an extremely old design, so much so that they were regarded as foreign initially. As the group advanced through dangerous crevices and around acidic oozes, they eventually came upon a machine which scanned them for identification, acknowledging the Sparkcog goblins as its masters. The machine went on to explain that it had been exactly five thousand, three hundred and twenty-six days and forty-seven seconds since it was last in contact with Sparkcog goblins, and that the facility was, in ancient times, operated under the Sparkcog Cartel. It revealed that 126 experiments previously maintained in preservative tubes had escaped their confinements and were now roaming the depths of the facility. Mutated crustacean experiments originally intended to mine underwater kaja'mite and other ore had grown tenfold in size, strength, and hostility while other less fortunate experiments began to gradually deteriorate and combine with their preservative fluids: some become little more than mindless ghouls while others little more than gelatinous, albeit sentinent and otherwise hostile, substances. (Giant snails, presumed to be natives exposed to radiation, also took up residence in the facility, and are known for regurgitating ooze at their target when they feel threatened.) At the lowest levels of the factory rested bars of kaja'mite in abundant enough supply to make more than one goblin a millionaire. Past a giant mutant crustacean which endangered and nearly ended the lives of several members of submarine #17 is the core of the factory, where a giant incinerator sits in the middle with cranes surrounding the bars of kaja'mite. The expeditionaries, having been thoroughly coated in "harmless" ooze by this point, were identified as threats by the system's processors, and were quickly met by a mechanical armada. With quick thinking on Baron Ryypo's part, he reached for a nearby control lever and pulled it in the direction labeled "OFF". To the unbearable dismay of the goblins in the core, the kaja'mite bars, which were soon after recognized as the factory's power source, were quickly picked up the cranes' hands and disposed of in the center incinerator, effectively shutting down the factory. Some kaja'mite was successfully mined at the base of the factory however, although none was obtained by any of the expeditionaries who'd braved the facility's depths. Everlook: The Millionaire Auction, Part 1 (August 10-11) In recent times, the hustle and bustle of Shipwreck's city life had all but erased Everlook from the public face of the cartel - until hordes of poachers and bounty hunters began departing from and arriving back in the snowy igloo town in emergency ambulances. For as long as any goblin can count, Old Icebreath had been known in the Winterspring region as a patriarch of the yetis and a terrifying monster to behold: a burly beast with thick fur and long, curved horns often charged headlong towards incoming caravans, ransacking them and often leaving its passengers in critical conditions. Old Icebreath was rumored to possess a beautiful, lavish coat which was highly praised and sought among those who saw it and lived to tell the tale. The patriarch's infamy grew alongside his number of ransackings, and eventually wanted posters and bounties sprang up around Everlook. '' ''One day, a group of professionals wandered into the bounty posters staining the walls of Everlook's inn and decided to take up, albeit with some negotiation leading to a pay raise - much to the dismay of those financing the bounty - the bounty on Old Icebreath. The expert poachers managed to thin the yeti's population and drive them back into remote caves and hills, although were unsuccessful in all their endeavours to find Old Icebreath. To compensate, the group skinned various yeti corpses and cured and stitched the hides together before walking back into town and claiming the beast's death. After handing over the fabricated patriarch's coat to an idiotically wealthy goblin, the hunters disappeared from Winterspring and neither Old Icebreath nor the yetis were heard from again for some time to come. Many years later, present day Everlook finds itself in a much more industrially advanced state with an old, all-too-familiar issue: over the course of the past few months, yeti sightings had begun to occur once again. These incursions on goblin trading routes became frequented more and more until bounties started appearing throughout the city to identify the source and end it. When the injured finally recovered well enough to speak, Everlook's denizens were somewhat puzzled to hear that the source of the problem was yetis. Old Icebreath's death was, in that instant, rendered controversial, and rumors and news of this spread like wildfire throughout many goblin settlements. Within weeks, groups upon groups of hunters looking to make a shiny penny started flocking to and squatting in, Everlook. Category:The Sparkcog Cartel Category:Out of Character Category:Event